


Brighter Than the Night

by unlikely_val



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, bc they have to be Awkward and Unsure first, but like not now, but that's not where we're headed, nick valentine will be happy if it's the last thing i do goddammit, not at all, tbh this could just be read as friends and that'd probably work just fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-21 01:06:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11933139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unlikely_val/pseuds/unlikely_val
Summary: Radiation in the atmosphere leads to brighter nights than Grace's sensitive eyes are used to, even months after her defrosting. And the damn ceiling has holes in it.





	Brighter Than the Night

**Author's Note:**

> Full disclosure: I only started playing FO4 like four days ago but I fell in love with Nicky immediately. Also my Sole Survivor, Grace, is how I play her (so.. me, but, like.. better). I will not apologize for this. 
> 
>  
> 
> (sorry)
> 
>  
> 
> Also no one edited this but me, so any errors in grammar/punctuation/etc are... likely.

The Commonwealth was too goddamn bright. Grace knew from whatever physics had stuck with her from 200 years ago that the light was because of the damn bombs. Just like everything else. The knowledge didn't give her the satisfaction a nice dark room would have. Unfortunately, there weren't many nice dark rooms available to her on the road between settlements- also thanks to the damned bombs. 

Grace laid on her back in her bedroll, looking up at the spaces between the remaining wooden support beams above her. She couldn't even properly call the remains a roof, really. _Just once,_ she thought, _it would be nice to have an overcast night without the whole radstorm issue._

It had been probably three days since she had properly slept. Slightly punch drunk, an unbidden memory surfaced in her mind. A motivational poster that seemed to adorn every hallway in every dorm building during her undergraduate degree that read "Your Future Is Bright!". Not sure if she wanted to laugh or cry about the very literal warning she had received centuries ago, Grace groaned and rolled onto her stomach. Her forehead was in direct contact with the dusty floor, but she couldn't find it in herself to care. After what felt like half a heartbeat, Grace heard movement from the adjacent room. 

"Aren't you asleep, doll?" Nick asked in a voice low enough Grace was almost sure he was still in the other room. If she hadn't been wide awake, she wouldn't have heard him.

Grace turned her face towards the doorway and smiled despite her own personal misery. A Nick-shaped shadow stood, hesitating between his room and her own, gold eyes much more soothing than the radioactive bullshit sky. Even with the contrast of his eyes amid the comparitively darker room- and the shadow he somehow managed to summon at will across his face- Grace could practically hear the expression he was making. It was part concerned, part comically exasperated, and all Nick. 

"Can't sleep. 'S too bright."

Nick's eyes adjusted slightly and Grace knew that an eyebrow had been raised. Maybe also a corner of his mouth. 

"Don't make that face at me, Valentine. A lady needs proper dark to sleep," she said and huffed a sigh that kicked up what she hoped was only dust. She cringed and rolled onto her back again, annoyed at the light and everything else. For good measure, she glared at the sky. 

A dry chuckle was followed by soft steps toward her. Grace heard rustling fabric, and looked over to see Nick removing his long overcoat. His eyes seemed to be looking elsewhere, but she couldn't help but still look on in silence. In the small dark room, Nick's white shirt seemed luminous, reflecting all the light from the night sky and almost giving him an ethereal aura. Words Mama Murphy said months ago suddenly resurfaced in Grace's mind. _A bright heart in a dark place, indeed._

Grace made a mental note to build more of those chairs Mama Murphy liked when they made it back to Sanctuary.

"I'm gonna want this back, you hear me?" said Nick with something like amusement lacing his voice. Pulled back to the present, Grace didn't have the chance to ask what he was talking about. Nick had crouched down beside her and gently placed his coat across her eyes. 

The relief was instant. She was half tempted to pull the coat away to thank Nick to his face, but her sensitive eyes were relaxed for the first time in days. She felt herself sink into the bedroll. Had the floor been this comfortable five minutes ago? She couldn't be sure, but she was aware that the edges of her mind were already succombing to sleep. Grace mumbled her thanks into the coat, barely registering Nick's retreating footsteps to the doorway.

She fell asleep wrapped in comfortable darkness and the smell of tobacco and steel.

**Author's Note:**

> So I was considering doing just like little baby fics about Grace and Nick being cute and awkward and sweet and stuff, but my demon brain wants me to make all the scenes into One Big Fic. I honestly haven't decided which way I'm going to do, but if y'all have an opinion one way or the other let me know.
> 
> If the One Big Fic, then welcome to chapter one! Chapter two is mostly written, it just needs polishing. If I end up doing small baby fics in the same universe, then look out for part two, coming (very) soon!


End file.
